The Repercussions of Reckless Passion
by Arielleira
Summary: It was all about sex. So when Chloe finds herself carrying a child, she is distraught and angry and scared. If there is no love, how can it work? Chlex.
1. Chapter One

It wasn't about love or friendship or any of the sweet things that inspire thoughts of lace and hearts and flowers. It was more about lust and loneliness and passion, and Chloe thought that actually meant more.

She grinned as she tipped back her glass of wine and let the sweet, though somewhat bitter, tasting liquid take over her mouth. She giggled loudly, leaning forward and clutching her stomach. Her previous three glasses of wine and one glass of scotch had already taken effect, and she was more than just a little tipsy.

"Lex, Lex..." she said, reaching out for the man's hand. Lex Luthor put down his own wine glass, and pulled the blonde girl off the floor where she had been sitting and up into his lap. Chloe delightfully threw her arms around his neck. She was a very congenial drunk.

"Did anyone ever tell you?" she whispered into his ear in a raspy voice that made Lex shiver, "That your bald head is very sexy?" As if to prove her point, Chloe started rubbing it and kissing it, causing Lex to moan and lean back in his chair.

"Chloe, you drive me wild, you know that?"

"Yes." She giggled again, letting his kisses wander down to his face, and soon his mouth. Lex buried his hands in her blonde hair, pulling his close to her, kissing her, tasting her...nothing had ever been this nice...

Things went like that often. They talked, the drank, they made love, and then Chloe went home. Neither of them spoke of the obvious connection, the obvious chemistry, outside the walls of the Luthor mansion. On the outside, it was like nothing had changed. Secretly, they worried if they did bring it up, things would change.

But things did change.

The light, lustful happiness was not in the air on the cool October night while Chloe drove toward the mansion. Settled over her was a feeling of disgust, fear, confusion, and shame. Slowly, unconciously, she let her hand wander to her middle and slip under her red shirt. She drove like that, her palm pressed against her stomach. Her breath was shuddery. It was almost more than she could grasp. It was hard to believe such a thing, especially when you were not even suspecting it.

Taking her hand away from her abdomen and wiping away salty tears, Chloe shook her head and concentrated on the road. There was no use crying over spilt milk. What was done was done.

She was having Lex Luthor's baby.

For some reason, though, even that thought sent a slight chill of excitement run up her spine.

Chloe pushed all her thoughts away as she pulled up toward the home and stopped the car. Well, it was now or never. Briefly she thought of taking the never and driving off into the distance, but she didn't want it ever to be said that Chloe Sullivan was a coward. Putting her car in park, she thought briefly to her future. Would she really have a baby in less than a year? It was hard to wrap her mind around that.

Lex was waiting for her there in his study, wine glasses already set out, and soft jazz music coming from the stereo. He didn't notice her uneasy attitude. He reached for her like it was any other day, and it threw him off when she pushed him away angrily.

Immediatly Lex turned the music down, before he took a seat in his chair, one eyebrow cocked up. "Would you like to tell what the hell your problem is?" he said coolly, smirking.

Chloe squeezed her eyes shut; just Lex's voice caused anger to flame up in her chest. "God, you're such a bastard. Did you have to practice being such a nonchalant smartass, or does it just come naturally?" She shook her head, not waiting for an answer to the rhetorical question. She sat down on a plushy couch, letting her head fall back and closing her eyes. "This is so much harder than I thought it would be."

Lex stared at her for a moment, then stood up and sauntered across the room. "I'm sorry," he said as he sat down next to her. He raised his hands, and Chloe fliched, her eyes flying open. "Shh..." he said in a calming voice, and he began to rub her shoulders. Chloe moaned, falling back to him. As he rubbed, he leaned in and started to kiss her neck.

"Lex..."

"Shh. No words." He let his hands slid up under her shirt so he could rub her back, and he kissed her shoulders.

"Lex..."

"Chloe..." he mocked sweetly, pulling her into his chest.

Chloe sighed; she could get used to this. Perfectly sober, cuddling. Nice. But she had to say something. She had to do what she had come here to do.

"Lex...I'm pregnant..."

The hands stopped massaging, and the kiss were brought to an end. Chloe gave a small gasp as the warmth that had surrounded her suddenly disapeared as Lex drew back, and there was only coldness.

* * *

She cried herself to sleep that night.

Chloe Sullivan was tough. Chloe Sullivan was resilient. But for a brief second, she had thought that maybe Lex loved her. Maybe he would respond to her news in a loving, joyful way. Maybe he wouldn't freak out and tell her that she should leave.

Which was exactly what he had done. And that just caused her heart to just...wither.

When she woke up in the morning, she had made a decision. It was just too painful. The idea of going telling her family and friends, going through a pregnancy, and having a baby, all while having Lex despise her, was too much. She couldn't do it.

She wasn't going to.

Chloe decided to skip school that day. She had more important issues to attend to. As she drove up to the Luthor mansion for a second time in twenty-four hours, she dried her eyes. She wasn't going to Lex see her cry again like he had seen last night.

He wasn't even awake yet, she discovered. Not really giving a fuck, she picked up a glass of water sitting on his nighttable, and tossed it in his face.

"I need money for an abortion."

This got his attention. Lex sat straight up, knocked a few expensive, silk-covered pillows to the floor. "Chloe? What? ...are you serious?"

Chloe rolled her eyes, impatient. She was eager to get the money, get the job done, and get on with her life, sans Lex. "Of course I'm serious. It's what we both want, isn't it? For this to have never happened? We can make it like it didn't."

Lex put a hand to his head, and feel back into his mattress, closing his eyes. "This isn't something I wanted to wake up to. Listen, I've had a lot of time to think about things..."

Tears started to well in Chloe's eyes, and she turned around as if she was angry. "Cut the crap, Lex," she said, her voice slightly wavering, "You haven't had a change of heart, you've simply had time to think up a good speech to make you not sound like such an awful man. This is what we both want. Just cough up the money and I'll be on my way."

Lex stared at the back of her head, watching her wring her hands, and periodically wipe her eyes. She wasn't ready to be a mother. She was a small, blonde, beautiful woman with a bright future. Slowly, he nodded his head. "Alright. Do you...do you want me to go with you?"

Chloe turned around, her eyes red and puffy. "Are you insane? I'm having this thing done so no one will ever find out. If Lex Luthor walks into an abortion clinic with me, it will be all over the Inquisitor before we even leave. It's something I'd like to do alone." There was a certain coldness in her voice that struck Lex's heart.

"Okay." He didn't know what else to say.

* * *

It was cruel really.

Chloe stood on the sidewalk in Metropolis, almost shaking, and clutching her purse tightly. It was a cruel thing, putting a baby store across the street from the clinic. Chloe vaguely wondered how many other girls had stood in the same exact spot she stood, watching the mothers go in and out, holding their stomachs and tiny babies. Looking joyous and happy and posessing the wonderful glow of motherhood.

Could she really go inside and kill all that?

She placed her hand on her stomach. Was there really something in there? A living thing?

'_I need a sign.'_

She stood there for a moment, leaning against her car, waiting. A sign. This was where something dramatic was supposed to happen. Like have Lex drive up in his Porsche and tell her to hop in, baby and all, he loved her. Or at least feel the baby kick. (Which was very unlikely at one month.)

But there was nothing.

Chloe headed up to the clinic, trying calm herself. Soon thing would be normal again, soon things would all be over...

She dropped her purse.

She cursed under her breath lightly. She leaned down to pick it up...

And there was a little girl, standing there, clutching the black bag. She had brown braids and big green eyes. "Here," she said, holding it up, "You dropped this."

Chloe stared at her for a moment, as she silently took the purse. The girl's mother stood there next to her, and slowly, a sad smile came across Chloe's face. She touched the girl's cheek.

"Thank you."


	2. Chapter Two

"I know just exactly where you are."

Chloe sat at a table in a Metropolis fast food restaurant, sipping a lemonade and talking to a young brunette woman named Maxine. Nearby, the little green-eyed girl (whose name turned out to be Leah), jumped into a ball pit.

"Four years ago," Maxine said, taking a bite of a thin, limp french fry, "I was seventeen and out of my mind. I was pregnant, and I didn't even know where the father was. I was at a crossroads, and I did a lot of serious thinking. Now, looking back on it, I can't believe that I almost though of..." Her eyes wandered over to her daughter. "I almost did it, too. Had an appointment and everything. Would have made things a lot easier...then. My parents wouldn't have kicked me out. I wouldn't have had to get those two jobs. I wouldn't have had to drop out of school. But now, it was all really worth it, if you can believe that. I've got a beautiful baby girl, a nice boyfriend, and an okay job."

Chloe shrugged, looking out the window. "But I...it's complicated. I don't want to hurt my father. My friends. Myself. And I thought maybe...maybe if things went back to normal, it would fix my relationship with Lex."

"What relationship?" Maxine asked bluntly. "From what you have described, there is no relationship there. It's just meaningless, empty sex. If you want to have a relationship with him, you're going to have to start from the bottom. Building blocks. You've been working on the roof of the house when there was no solid foundation at all. That's a dangerous game to play, Chloe, because sooner or later, you'll get crushed."

That left Chloe quiet for a long time.

* * *

Gabe Sullivan had lived with his daughter for seventeen years, and he knew when something was wrong with her.

Something was definately wrong with Chloe.

She had been sitting in her room, music turned up very high, with her American history book opened to the exact same page for over an hour. Every few minutes, Gabe would pass by the room and see Chloe, still seated there at her desk, staring off into space. He wondered what she could be thinking about, but he didn't want to intrude. She'd come around in her own time.

Gabe sat down on the couch, flipping on the television. Some ridiculous movie was on, having to do with prostitutes and music and, strangely, something about an elephant. He wasn't following it well, and he immediatly noticed when Chloe entered the room. Tears lined her face and automatically Gabe flipped off the television.

"Honey! What's wrong? Come. Here. Sit."

Gabe was eager to find out the problem, and solve it. It had been so long since he had been his daughter's knight in shining armor. Sometimes, he really missed the days when a band-aid and a kiss made the world bright again...

Chloe practically collapsed onto the sofa, into her father's arms. Now he knew there was definately something wrong. Chloe had always been so tough. So independent. Whatever it was that brought her down to this...it was big.

Taking her shoulders, Gabe looked into his daughter's eyes. "Chloe...did someone hurt you?"

Chloe shook her head, wiping her eyes and laughing dryly. "No...no. I'm just so scared about what I'm going to say...what you're going to say when you..." She took a long pause, and Gabe didn't even breath. He could think of only three things that would really hurt him.

"...I'm pregnant."

And that was one of them.

"Honey..." he said, breathless and disbelieving, "What...tell me what happened. How. When. How could you do this? Who did this?"

Chloe laughed again, and Gabe wanted to tell her to stop. He had never heard such hate-filled laughs come from her. They reminded him far to much of the way her mother used to laugh, whenever they would fight, right before she left them.

"Do you really think I want to go through the sordid details of my sex life with you, Dad?"

A sex life. His daughter had a sex life. Not only a sex life, but a sordid one. Gabe pushed the thoughts from his mind. The whole situation was just far too upsetting to think about all at once. "Well then...can you at least tell me who?"

The words came tumbling from Chloe's mouth immediatly. "Lex Luthor."

Anger surged through Gabe, and if it had been for Chloe pulling him back down on to the couch by his arm, he would have gone and killed Lex Luthor right there.

"Please," she said in a wavering voice, "Please, Daddy. Let me explain."

"Explain?" Gabe hissed, in a low, censorious voice, "Chloe, that man is six or seven years older than you, not to mention _my boss_. And it is well known that he...gets around! Who knows what he could have given you, besides _a baby!"_

His voice had now risen to shouting range, and Chloe was trembling. Gabe immediatly felt terrible. Sure, Chloe deserved reprimanding, but not now. Now she was scared and confused and she needed the reassurance that her father was there for her.

"Oh, Chloe..." he whispered. Scolding could wait. He made sure his little girl wiped her tears. Not speaking anymore of the thing that was on the top of both of their minds, Gabe made his daughter some hot cocoa, then sent her to bed.

* * *

It was a Saturday.

Chloe had said he didn't have to come along, but Gabe insisted. He had the right to be involved. She was his daughter, and this baby was his...grandchild.

"Luthor!"

Lex was suprised to see Chloe, but even more surprised to see Gabe. The man stood in the doorway of his study, hands in his jacket pockets, glaring at him. Lex's eyes flitted over to Chloe in surprise, as if to ask what was going on. After all, she had wanted to keep everything so quiet. Had she told him?

"Chloe told me everything."

So she had.

"Not _everything_," Chloe interjected immediatly. She had left out the underage drinking out, and quite a few of the more...intimate details. Things you wouldn't exactly want to share with your father.

Lex took a deep breath, nodding and motioning for them both to sit. He looked down at his desk for a long time, then finally looked up, looking straight into Chloe's eyes. "So...I'm taking it that you didn't abort the baby?"

"_What?!"_

Obviously detail the young Miss Sullivan had conveniately forgotten to mention to her father.

"You were trying to force her to have an abortion, weren't you? Not good for you public image, right? Well you should have thought of that before you seduced a teenager, you vile, disgusting-"

"Daddy! I wanted the abortion! Me! Me! Lex tried to talk me out of it, but when I insisted he gave me the money. Then I decided against it. Lex had nothing to do with it, almost. So if you'd stop jumping to conclusions..." She gave an exasperated sigh and stalked over to the window, rubbing her temples. "God, I can't stop crying lately. Must be all the fucking hormones."

"Chloe!"

"Oh, don't 'Chloe!' me." She turned around, and took a deep breath to calm herself. "Dad...please. Let me talk to Lex alone for a minute. I promise that I'll be alright."

Gabe paused for a moment, considering the possibilities. Then, deciding that it'd be easier to just give Chloe a few moments with Lex than fight with her in her current condition, he nodded and left the study, closing the doors behind him.

Chloe continued staring out the window, tapping at it, then letting her fingers slide down. Lex stood behind her, and she could feel his eyes, looking at her.

"Well..." he said slowly, "I guess we should work out some arrangements."

Chloe nodded absentmindedly, staring out into the cool autumn of Lex's estate.

"I know some fabulous doctors. I can get you an appointment; you need to have a check-up, make sure everything is okay..." He could feel that she was listening, even though she wasn't looking at him. "I'm sure you'll want to continue with school. It is your senior year, after all. That's perfectly fine. I don't want you to do anything crazy like drop out. You deserve to graduate and go on to college. I can handle-"

"Do you want custody?" Chloe turned around from the window, her eyes red and puffy. "Because I...I don't want to end up never seeing the baby. A baby needs a mother. I don't...I don't want to be like my mother. Absent from the child's life. If I go through this pregnancy, I don't want it to be a phone call here and a birthday card there, then nothing. I want to be...a mother."

"I'm not trying to take the child away from you," Lex said softly, "I've just been thinking...it makes sense if the baby stayed here. I have lots of extra rooms I can use as a nursery. I have a job, and I don't have to go to school. I can get a nanny, and...and you'll be welcome over anytime you want. I'll even give you a key. You can have your own room if you want, right next to the baby's, if you ever want to stay over with it. I don't want you to feel like I'm trying to keep distance between you and your child. I just want what's best. For you _and_ the baby."

Chloe finally nodded. "...alright." She then sat down, taking in the sight of the room. Memories of the times she had in this room were foggy and cloudy and only halfway there.

"We tried to have something that would never work," she said quietly, almost in a whisper, "We tried to be not-even-friends- with benefits. But to make this work, Lex...Lex, we're going to have to at least be friends."

Lex's eyebrow raised a little at the ambiguous 'at least' part, but held out his hand. "Friends, then?"

Chloe smiled, and shook his hand. "Friends."

* * *


End file.
